


Among Everyday Things

by Mimiminaj



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Children, Family, Fluff, From the Cradle to the Grave, Great Depression, M/M, Major Character Death (from old age), Slice of Life, World War 2, grandkids, life fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 17:27:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11719062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimiminaj/pseuds/Mimiminaj
Summary: He crawled across the short expanse of the tree house and tugged on Stiles’ shirt.“What, are they bringing reinforcerants?”“It’s reinforcements, and no, but I wanted to try something.”“Okay?”Derek took his face in his hands and smiled at him, and Stiles smiled back. Jesus, his heart was beating so quickly, and was it really that loud or could only Derek hear that? This was going to be his first kiss.He leaned forward and brushed his lips against Stiles’.And than quickly fell backwards with a gasp.“What the heck Stiles!” Derek moaned, hand going to the side of his face. When he looked up Stiles was holding the baseball bat they kept in the treehouse and his eyes were the size of two grapefruit.Or, Derek was nine years old when he fell in love with Stiles. This is their life story.





	Among Everyday Things

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Holly Williams breathtaking song Waiting on June. You can listen to it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iRvKFjKgyw

**Year: 1926**

**Age: 9**

“Stop pushing me Laura, or I’m going to tell mom.”

“I wasn’t pushing you,” she replied angrily, nose in the air as she folded her arms. “You were just walking very slowly.”

“I can walk however fast I want to walk you loser. Don’t push me or I’ll tell mom about how you broke half the chicken eggs last week cause you liked that gross stuff sliding down your arm!”

“It’s called yolk,” she said with the air of someone talking to a three year old. Derek was nine, so her tone was six years out of line. “And if you do,” she continued, “I’m going to go into your school and tell Stiles about that huge crush you have on him.”

Derek gave a (manly and very dignified) little screech and started walking faster. The sooner they returned from the market down the road the sooner he could get away from Laura. The slices of cheese and the packet of almonds he was carrying smelled amazing, and as far as he was concerned getting home meant getting away from Laura and getting food faster.

“You are so annoying sometimes,” he yelled back as he picked up his pace. She caught up relatively quickly.

“Don’t look now Derek,” she all but cackled, “ but I think you might find something interesting in the field.”

Derek turned and spotted Stiles and Scott playing horseshoes in one of the nearest fields. Now that Laura pointed them out, he could just barely hear the murmur of their yells and laughs over the light autumn breeze.

“If you weren’t such a coward I’m sure they would let you play with them,” she cackled again. “Too bad my little brother is too much of a wimp.”

“Shut up Laura! Maybe I’ve already talked to Stiles! You don’t know anything!”

“You are such a terrible liar. Race you?”

* * *

 

It was mid June when Derek heard a rattle on his window. He got up quickly, excitement already running through his veins as he looked outside. Another little rock hit just above his window as he stuck his head out.

“I’ll be right down,” he hissed.

He quickly made his way into the woods next to his house and found Stiles waiting by one of their favorite trees.

“Jeez, what took you so long? That was probably like the eighth rock!”

“Sorry I made the little princess wait,” Derek teased, before Stiles scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Come on,” Stiles said, “let’s go to the tree house. We can be runaway robbers tonight!”

Personally, Derek thought that was a bit childish, but Stiles was only seven, a full two years younger than him, and he was willing to play along if it made the boy happy. Derek would just die if Laura could see him holding imaginary guns and whisper shouting down to the imaginary people trying to climb up into their tree house.

It was during this time, when Stiles was really getting into it and was happily shouting at the ‘Sherriff’ to go shove it in some very, very creative places that Derek was overcome by a very, very intense surge of affection. Stiles was beautiful.

He crawled across the short expanse of the tree house and tugged on Stiles’ shirt.

“What, are they bringing reinforcerants?”

“It’s reinforcements, and no, but I wanted to try something.”

“Okay?”

Derek took his face in his hands and smiled at him, and Stiles smiled back. Jesus, his heart was beating so quickly, and was it really that loud or could only Derek hear that? This was going to be his first kiss.

He leaned forward and brushed his lips against Stiles’.

And than quickly fell backwards with a gasp.

“What the heck Stiles!” Derek moaned, hand going to the side of his face. When he looked up Stiles was holding the baseball bat they kept in the treehouse and his eyes were the size of two grapefruit.

“You kissed me!” He shrieked.

“You hit me!”

“You kissed me!” He repeated.

Derek was about to repeat what he had just said too, but than remembered that he wasn’t a seven year old.

“I’m going home,” he murmured, scrambling away and down the ladder of the tree house. He wasn’t that bothered when Stiles didn’t follow him.

Okay, he may have cried into his pillow a bit, but whatever. He probably had allergies or something.

 

**14**

 

Derek catches sight of him from time to time. Like right now, for instance, he’s sitting at the barber shop and studiously ignoring the old man that’s cutting his hair in favor of looking out the window at the people passing by the shop when he catches sight of a golden buzzcut.

He’s just as beautiful as he remembers him. Stiles is across the road getting ice cream with his father. He watches the boy shoot a thousand watt smile to his dad, and Derek averts his eyes.

 That smile used to be for him.

 

**16**

 

Derek was just finishing up milking when he heard a knock on the barn door. He threw a glance over his shoulder and then did a double take. Stiles, in a beautiful blue plaid that did wonders for his eyes, was hovering by the doorway.

He gave a quick few pats to the cow before standing up and walking towards him. Derek was a little surprised, given the last time either of them had any interaction outside of school was a year ago when Derek and his mother ran into Stiles and his father at the market and they awkwardly had to make small talk while their parents caught up.

“Umm, wow how come you never wear that too school?” Stiles started, hands twisting themselves. His face looks like he immediately regrets what just came out of his mouth.

Derek looks down at himself and is not very impressed. He’s’ wearing ratty jeans and a white wife beater, and he’s pretty sure it’s quite, quite dirty.

“What I meant to say, is, wow, I can’t believe I came over here. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Father is going to laugh until he’s blue in the face. But mom won’t stop _talking_ _about you_. She says you are her favorite student, which I just think is mean considering I’m her - ”

“Stiles!” Derek barks, a little bit of laughter escaping him. “I’m sorry, but I’m confused. Why are you here?”

“I just wanted to come talk about…the tree house.”

Derek feels his face heat up and his muscles pull together. Damn. They’ve talked about the tree house a total of zero times. After that night, Stiles stopped coming around, and Derek made no attempt to approach him in public.

“I didn’t know that was something you wanted to talk about?” He says evenly, not sure where Stiles is going with this.

“I mean I love talking, you know I do, but I have to agree. This topic is very awkward.”

Derek stands his ground.

“Okay fine, if you have nothing to add I’m just going to ask,” Derek watches Stiles’ face redden (beautifully) and scrunch his eyes shut as he quickly says “I was wondering if that was still on the table?”

Derek’s eyebrows shoot up and his eyes widen. Stiles peeks one eye open and just stares at him.

“When you say ‘that’ do you mean the kissing?”

“Oh dear lord, it’s not on the table is it,” Stiles starts, already about to turn away from embarrassment. “Forget I said anything, you know that I –umnff – “

Derek doesn’t let him finish. He pushes Stiles up against the barn door and kisses him senseless.

When he pulls back, Stiles is looking up at him with a dazed and happy expression. His lips are red from when Derek couldn’t help but nibble on them.

“You know,” Stiles sighs, and Derek swears his voice sounds like what he would imagine sex to be, “it’s not proper to kiss before a first date.”

“We’ve had plenty of dates,” Derek answers, hands brushing down Stiles’ arm, still trapped up against the door. “We were pretending to be pirates and cowboys, remember?”

Stiles throws his head back and openly laughs, and Derek is left with the beautiful expanse of a pale throat in front of him. He has to give it a little bite. Which is, of course, the worst time for his father to round the barn and catch him worrying Stiles’ skin between his teeth.

They can’t see each other outside of their parent’s supervision for five whole months.

 

**17**

 

Derek is seventeen when Stiles and him go on their first official (which really means unsupervised) date. Neither of them has any money to spend, the depression making sure that all their wages get funneled into helping their respective families, but it doesn’t bother them one bit.

They camp out in a little picnic atop the hill that overlooks the Stilinski house and watch the sunset.

Stiles tells Derek about the time two years ago when Scott convinced him that he could talk to animals because Scott’s dog sat when Scott told him too. In Stiles’ defense, his family never owned any pets.

Derek tells Stiles about the time he accidently told Cora’s crush that Cora likes to wear his old underwear, and Cora preceded to throw a rampage across his room that only ended once his mother made them both sit in a corner for an hour. When Derek was fourteen years old. 

Stiles confides in him that he sometimes wakes in the middle of the night terrified that his father won’t come home. That he’s afraid the depression has driven somebody so crazy that they actually attempt to rob somebody and kill his father in the process.

Derek grabs Stiles and brings him into his chest. They stay like that as Derek tells Stiles how hard it’s been, with the Hales having four, growing children. How most nights he won’t eat as much as he should, just so that Cora and little James have more, and that he can hear them say they are full when they go to bed.

* * *

 

Stiles asks Derek to the Sadie Hawkins dance at school and, after seeing the way Stiles dances for the first time; vibrant and wild, so ecstatic and carefree that Derek just has to pull him close and tell him that he loves him.

Stiles says it back.

 

**18**

 

Derek is two months shy of graduation when he gets the letter in the mail. His parents try to put on a brave face, but he can see how terrified they are. Derek is just glad both Laura and Cora are girls, and that his younger brother is still that, young.

He’s never been more thankful for the age difference between him and Stiles before.

Stiles spends three hours straight crying when Derek tells him. The younger boy grabs on to his shirt and just wails, saying that he won’t let them take him. That Derek doesn’t have to go. That they can run away and be real life fugitives, find some grand tree house somewhere and hide away until they are old and can’t climb up and down the ladder anymore. Derek holds him through it, feeling absolutely wrecked but not willing to show it.

He asks his parents, a week before he ships out to base camp, if he could have one night alone with Stiles. Derek’s never felt a more charged room before; never felt so many things thought and so many things unsaid. His parents look at him with such regret, such remorse, but also with such love and devotion that he feels his throat close up.

It’s pretty clear why Derek’s asking. He doesn’t say the _in case I don’t come back_ when he brings it up to his parents, because that would feel like he’s admitting it’s a possibility.

Derek fully knows it’s a possibility. It's probably even likely. He’ll never let his parents, or anybody else for that matter; know that he’s accepted that though.

He takes Stiles up to the barn’s attic, and lays a sheet over the straw that makes up a large canopy at the top. A window baths Stiles’ naked body in moonlight, and Derek has never seen something so beautiful before.

Stiles withers on his fingers, hands stroking Derek’s face and shoulders and arms and mouth flowing with an endless river of ‘pleases’ and ‘Dereks’ and ‘I love you’s’.

They both moan when Derek slips inside, and he realizes that Stiles is shaking when he attempts a fumbling thrust. He supposes that’s okay, because he’s shaking too.

Afterward, curled up under the moonlight with Stiles breathing against his shoulder, he feels a hand come up and run through his hair.

“Please come back to me, Derek. I’d do anything, just… please.”

“Will you wait for me?” He counters, ignoring the searing mixture of everything his heart is making him feel.

“I would wait my whole life if you came back to me the day before I died.”

Derek smiles at that, and he lets a few tears fall out of his eyes.

“I’ll come back for you Stiles, I promise.”

They make love three more times that night, finally falling asleep as the rising sun kisses Stiles’ shoulder.

Derek’s never felt happier in his life.

 

**19**

 

He’s terrified. They hardly taught him anything, training camp lasted about two weeks before they were shipping him overseas. His body already feels like it’s been pushed past its limits. He can’t stop his hands from shaking when he holds his gun. He’s a terrible shot.

But he doesn’t give up. He teaches himself to be better. He has to be better. There are people waiting for him at home.

He quickly learns that the world is cruel, and that everybody has somebody waiting at home. And in the scheme of things, that doesn’t mean shit.

He’s becoming close with his brothers. Him and Isaac bunked together during training, and have been steadily sharing stories and learning about each other since they met all those months ago. Boyd is very quiet, and Derek is unsure if it’s bred from fear, sorrow, or his actual nature. Either way, the man is brave, and has already saved Derek’s life more than once. Jackson is a little shit, too whiny, too snotty, but that changed once Isaac shoved him away from a grenade and saved both of their lives.

He keeps Stiles’ picture in his back pocket, and he brings it out before going to bed each night. At this point, his whole platoon has seen Stiles’ face countless times, and he’s been the butt of a thousand different jokes.

But he’s thankful for that. It keeps him sane, reminds him that there’s somebody waiting for him at home. Reminds him _Stiles_ is waiting for him at home.

* * *

 

_Derek,_

_Mom died five days ago. It was the same day I got your last letter. No, I don’t know if I’ve ever had garbure but it sounds fantastic. Maybe you can bring me back some?_

_Oh hell, I don’t really care about the food. Please make it back, Derek. I’m doing everything I can to keep Dad going.  Your family is a lifesaver – we’ve moved in with them for the time being. Your mother and father could be saints – it’s very easy to see where you got your kind heart from._

_But please. You are what gets me through these days. You’re what I think about when I need to convince myself to keep going, that it will be okay._

_Do you remember what you told me, when I was seven? When I was crying about that squirrel I killed when the baseball I hit went a little too far? You said that the squirrel knew it was an accident, and that it thanks me because it is now in squirrely heaven with all of it’s loved ones, and that it was it’s time, and that it’s now in a better place because of me._

_Thank you for telling me that. Those words, and the thought of being able to hold you back on these lands gives me strength. I love you so much._

_Forever,_

_Stiles_

 

**20**

 

Derek is quieter now. He supposes he’d have to be, after witnessing the darkest and most horrific acts a man can do. War is….war. He cannot describe it, nor would he want to.

It’s been more than a year and a half since he held Stiles in the attic under the moonlight, and there’s still not a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about that moment, about the ocean of pale skin that withered under him and whispered his name like he was a god.

In September, after months of Derek sharing stories of Stiles and Isaac sharing stories of Annie, they start planning the day when they can meet the other’s love. Derek knows Stiles would love a road trip, and he would gladly journey to Washington to stay with Isaac. Isaac showed Derek the ring he bought a week before leaving, and said that he plans on giving it to Annie when he gets back.

Isaac dies in November. They are working on recovering a small town in France when Isaac gets shot, twice, once through the shoulder and another right under it. Derek’s blood runs cold when he sees his brother fall to the ground, quickly making it to him and pulling him under cover.

“Isaac,” he pants, whimpers more like, clutching his body close. There’s so much blood. “Isaac, no.”

“Medic,” Derek wails, already knowing it will be too late. He see’s Ethan across a courtyard, already working on mending up Briggs. There’s not enough time.

“Isaac, I’m here, Isaac. Please.” He’s crying.

“Derek,” a horrible sounding gurgle comes out of Isaac’s mouth. Derek’s heart fucking _breaks_.

“Yeah, I’m right here buddy. I’m here.” He’s cradling him in his arms, and he can’t stop shaking. God, what if he’s hurting Isaac? It feels like his whole body is going to shake apart.

“I think they got me,” Isaac sighs.

Derek laughs, holding him closer and starting to pet his hair.

“Derek?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Promise me…promise me something.”

“Anything Isaac.”

“Take my ring…and ask that dumb boy. He’ll say yes. Promise me Derek.”

Derek almost can’t see through his tears.

“And find Annie? Tell her…how much I loved her.”

There’s so much blood.

“Derek?”

“Okay, yes. I promise you. Goddamnit you idiot, yes, I promise.”

* * *

Derek’s shaking when he hops off the plane and runs into his mother's and father’s arms. He sent them a letter to know of his deployment and of his arrival date, and asked them to keep it a secret from Stiles. It takes him just an hour to drop off his stuff at the Hale house and then he’s running through the countryside to the Stilinski house.

It’s pouring rain and he’s soaking wet and his parents somewhat angrily called out to him to just drive but he couldn’t. He has too much energy. He’s going to ask Stiles to marry him damnit.

He pounds on the door with his heart in his throat, and he loses his breath as Stiles appears in the entryway. He’s older now, shoulders filling out his plaid shirt beautifully, and Derek has to push that stab of affection and love aside as he smiles up at the man.

Who sort of just sighs and leans against the door.

“I didn’t realize this was a dream,” he murmurs. He must see Derek’s face fall and his lips lift up slightly. “Don’t worry dream Derek, I’m still thrilled you’re here. Would be more nice if it was when I’m awake but – “

Derek cuts him off by laughing. Tilts his head back and full out laughs. He’s standing in the rain, and he’s soaked through to the bone, and Stiles is just –

“You’re so unbelievable,” he says, pushing Stiles against the doorframe and claiming his mouth in a biting kiss. “I’m real, and I’m here, and I love you.”

He watches the realization cross over Stiles’ face and shit, this moment right here, he would make it through a hundred wars if he could put that smile and those tears on Stiles’ face.

And then, once he falls down onto one knee and Stiles has that look again, four minutes after the first, he’s never wanted to hear the word yes so much in his whole life.

Later, Stiles uses his body to push Derek into the covers, and now it’s him withering on Stiles’ finger, and Stiles shielding his body from the rest of the world. Derek hasn’t felt this safe in two years, and it’s that thought that lets a tear fall down his cheek.

“Derek,” Stiles says, fingers stopping their administration inside of his body and tone sounding sharp, worried. “Are you okay?”

Derek looks up at him and smiles, rearing up for a kiss and pushing his hips back into Stiles’ hand.

“It’s just… I love you so much.” He pleads, not caring if he’s becoming needy, not caring how much he shows Stiles, how many defenses he lets fall.

He lets them all fall.

That’s okay though, cause Stiles is there to catch what’s left of him.

* * *

 

Derek visits Claudia’s grave a week after his return. He sits down next to the tombstone and places fresh lilac’s he cut from Cora’s garden (she’s been going through a flower phase) on the ground and lifts his head up towards the sun.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye,” Derek starts, hand starting to stroke the cold cement.

“Thank you, Claudia, for bringing someone like Stiles into the world. I promise you that I will do my best to love and look after him in your place. And John, for that matter.”

He sat out there for two hours, losing himself in memories of Stiles and Claudia, before Stiles finds him just as the sun starts to set. Stiles looks at him with wide eyes but doesn’t say anything, just sits down and nestles his way between Derek’s body and the tombstone.

He too runs a hand across the tombstone, and his eyes are shining when he glances back at Derek.

“Thank you for coming here…just…thank you.”

Derek kisses him as a reply.

 

**21**

 

They get married in the little town church two months after Derek’s 21st birthday. Derek doesn’t really like being the center of attention, still nervous around crowds and can’t quite make small talk as well as before the war, but he manages.  Stiles floats around the room like the social butterfly he is, his laugh playing as the soundtrack to one of the days Derek will never forget.

Their parents, along with money Stiles saved and a small portion given to Derek for his time overseas is pooled together to buy a few acres for Stiles and Derek to start their lives with.

They stay at the Stilinski house while Derek spends his days building a house and a barn, as neither of them wanted to leave John by himself just yet.

It’s shortly before Derek turns 23 that he and Stiles are ready to move into the small farmhouse. They stand in front of the doors and Stiles turns to him, eyes him up and down before sighing and dropping his bags.

“Well I guess you better carry me,” he says, feigning annoyance.

“Seeing as one of us weighs 200 some pounds of just muscle and one of us is me, you better do the honors.”

Derek rolls his eyes but complies, scooping his husband up, walking inside and over to the couch before tossing him on to it.

“Oomph,” Stiles groans, looking up with a look that clearly says _you are a traitor and you will pay for your deeds. In a very sexual way._

Yes, it’s a look and Derek is actually quite familiar with it.  They don’t unpack much that night, but they certainly break the bed in. And the kitchen table.

They actually need to buy a new kitchen table afterwards.

 

**23**

 

Derek is slightly shaking when he knocks on the door. Stiles’ hand is warm and sturdy in his left hand, and he’d be afraid he’s gripping it too tight if he wasn’t dead focused on the girl who opens up the door. She looks confused on seeing the two of them.

 She’s as beautiful as Isaac said she would be.

“How can I help you gentlemen?”

God, Derek’s throat isn’t working. After a few moments of silence (where Derek sort of just stares at Annie, he’s probably coming off as super creepy right now), Stiles clears his throat and offers Annie a warm smile.

“Hi, sorry this might be a little hard for him.” Derek feels Stiles’ hand squeeze him back. “He umm, he was with Isaac during the war.”

Annie’s eyes widen and her eyes snap back towards Derek.

“You’re Derek?” She asks, eyes already starting to glisten and hands making an abortive gesture.

Derek nods and before he knows it he has Annie in his arms and she’s squeezing him so hard, and Isaac really was right, she smells exactly like fresh apples and the air before it rains.

They stay with her for three days. Annie asks if Derek wants to read the letters Isaac sent to her, letters that frequently reference him and his kindness, but Derek declines. He knows he would never want anybody else reading his letters to Stiles, and he feels it would be a disservice to Isaac’s memory.

 

**24**

 

Derek still has terrible nightmares. He dreams that Stiles got drafted with him, and that he watches as it was Stiles whose throat was slit, that it was Stiles that died in his arms. He wakes up screaming, drenched in sweat and shaking.

Stiles is there, always there, shushing him and pulling him back under the covers and carding those long fingers through his hair. Telling him he’s safe, that he’s loved, that he’s never going back there again. That Derek won, that Derek _survived,_ just like how he will survive these nightmares. It will be okay, he whispers into Derek’s skin.

It’s on one of those nights, after Derek’s woken up from a nightmare and him and Stiles are sharing a midnight tea waiting for Derek’s body and mind to calm down that a loud and insistent knocking can be heard from the door. The knocking is accompanied by an infants cry not seconds later.

Derek and Stiles exchange startled looks before going to their entryway, letting a haggard looking John in, still wearing his Sherriff uniform and holding a baby.

“Dad,” Stiles says nervously, as if he’s afraid his father had a psychotic break.

“We found this baby on the front steps of the precinct…” John begins, and, _holy shit_ , _John is offering them the baby_.

“And why is it here…” Stiles begins, glancing over at Derek. He must see something in Derek’s face though, because he too looks back at the baby with wide, startled eyes.

They name him James Claudia Hale-Stilinski, and Derek has his crib handcrafted not twenty four hours later.

Babies are annoying as hell, Derek’s come to find. They are loud, they keep him and Stiles up half the night and half the morning, they throw up everywhere, they stink, you can’t really do anything with them, and they need constant, constant supervision. It feels like Derek can’t even live his life.

Derek realizes one night, as he’s laying James down and kissing Stiles goodnight, that he’s never been happier.

 

**26**

 

It feels like Derek’s 26 for all of two weeks when, once again, the Sherriff shows up to the house bringing an unexpected gift. This time, it’s not in the middle of the night, and it’s more than one baby. A mother died in the hospital delivering twins in the town over, and, without a father in the picture and no family members willing to take it, John had volunteered the ( _as the story goes_ ) perfect couple.

Little Ella and Annie fit right into Derek’s life, and he swears his heart is getting bigger and bigger inside his chest to accommodate all the people he loves.

 

**28**

 

James is 4 years old when he breaks his wrist falling out of a tree, and Derek hasn’t been this scared since the war. Stiles is almost hysterical, switching between scolding James and showering him with love in the same sentence.

James, and to an extend the girls, haggard for a dog after that, so Derek goes out and brings home a golden retriever puppy for the twins’ third birthday.

They want to name him Puppy, which Derek almost protests over before Stiles sends him a withering glare and Derek relents. He spends a lot of afternoons teaching Puppy commands, and by the time Derek’s 30 Puppy is so well trained that if he whistles a certain pitch he will go find Stiles and proceed to tackle him and shower his face in licks.

The kids die of joy every time, and while Stiles likes to act like he’s annoyed, Derek knows he’s having just as much fun as everyone else.

* * *

 

Sex is so much harder when you have three children that know how to walk and open a door. Ella is a very, very light sleeper, and there have been, and still are, some very close calls. They have to get very creative with their sex life, and neither of them is above dumping their kids at their grandparents house, going back home to fuck on the first surface they can get to, and go back to pick them up an hour later.

All three grandparents know what they are doing, and their judgmental looks have yet to stop them.

 

**29**

 

They get their first color TV in 1955, a gift from Derek’s parents to the entire family. The kids go absolutely _insane_ , and Stiles has to implement a TV schedule to keep them from being glued to the screen 24/7.

Derek’s still not completely sure if it’s for the kids’ benefit or his husband's. Derek will come down after reading the twins their bedtime story only to find Stiles glued to the TV, usually enraptured by a performance by that Elvis fellow. He’s usually standing in front of the damn thing and attempting to gyrate his hips like the singer.

Watching his husband’s adoration for another man upsets Derek greatly, until one night when Stiles walked up to him with a smile and declared he finally mastered the jiggle.

“I’m going to rock your world tonight,” Stiles whispered, pushing Derek up against the door and then, admittedly, did something pretty amazing with his hips.

“Wait, that’s what you’ve been doing this whole time?”

Stiles looks confused. “Umm, yes, wasn’t it painfully obvious?”

Derek grins, relieved, before catching Stiles’ lips in his own.

 

**30**

 

Ella is just shy of her and Annie’s fifth birthday when she comes back from her first day of school and is extremely quiet. Later, as Derek sits on the couch and reads his favorite copy of _The Catcher in the Rye_ does Ella climb into his lap and press into his chest.

“You’ve been awfully quiet today,” Derek murmurs, hands going to run through her hair.

“I don’t want anybody to die, Papa.”

“And why would you think something like that?”

“We practiced in school today…hiding under our desks.”

Derek hums and nods his head. He hasn’t been keeping the closest eye on the Cold War, still not able to look at anything on the TV with guns and explosions without feeling a terrible, gnawing ache in his chest. He knows the school’s practice drills. He knows they have the kids take cover and prepare in case America gets attacked.

“You know sweetheart, I’ve survived my own fair share of bombing back in the day.”

Ella looks up with wide eyes. Her hands scrunch up his shirt before relaxing again.

“In your war?”

“Yeah. People even called me bomb proof. So as long as I’m around, and trust me I plan on being around for a long, long time, than no bombs are going to be able to get you.”

Ella smiles and wipes her eyes with her hand before snuggling closer.

“Daddy,” she yells, honestly startling Derek.

“Yes honey,” he hears Stiles call from the kitchen.

“Papa said he’s bomb proof!”

A pause.

“Of course he is! Your Papa is a hero.”

 

**31**

 

“You know,” Stiles says one night as he’s climbing on top of him, “James is the same age now that I was when you first kissed me in the tree house.”

Derek raises his eyes and digs his fingers into Stiles’ side, making the man squeal with laughter and jiggle his body.

“I thought we didn’t talk about the tree house,” Derek teased.

“Oh my God, stop,” Stiles wheezes, finally catching Derek’s hands in his and latching on. “I’m just saying, he could meet the love of his life any day now.”

“I’m not going to let James date till he’s thirty,” Derek whispers, flipping them over and starting to kiss down his husband’s chest.

“That wouldn’t have stopped us,” Stiles sighs.

Derek grins, placing a kiss right next to Stiles’ belly button.

“No it would not have,” he agrees before he takes the younger man into his mouth. They don’t do much talking after that.

* * *

 

James does show an interest in a girl once he’s ten, and Derek and Stiles just laugh before saying he can’t bring her around the house till he’s 21.  

 

**34**

 

Derek is 34 when his parents die in a car crash. He’s inconsolable for a couple days, Stiles stepping up and handling everything from the funerals to the kids to the many, many family friends that visit their door to give their sympathies.

He curls up at night around his children and Puppy, bringing them into his bed because he just needs them close, Stiles drapes around his back and whispers that it was their time and that they were so proud with what Derek’s done with his life. James cries the most, and Ella and Annie, still not really understanding death but understanding that their family is in pain, join in with Stiles’ soothing words. Puppy pushes his muzzle against Derek’s hand, whimpering and licking.

It helps. He survives. They survive.

 

**36**

 

Ella and Annie are going through an outdoor phase and, to appease them, Derek spends the better part of a Saturday morning cooking and baking and preparing a picnic. Stiles dresses everybody up in their most durable outerwear and fusses over James, who is now 12 and fairly resilient, to put on the damn sunscreen.

Derek whistles and Puppy bounds down the stairs and joins them as they head out. There’s a clearing about 2 miles east of the farmstead, and Derek only has to answer the question are we there yet three times before he’s plopping the basket down and getting everybody situated.

It’s a mess. His kids are 12 and 10 yet they still don’t seem to want to use damn silverware. Annie keeps getting distracted, getting up and running towards a tree and touching the bark, chirping that the trees need to feel loved every so often too. Ella keeps seeing random squirrel’s, rabbits, or damn butterflies, and Derek has to chase her down and bring her back to the blanket multiple times. James likes to complain that it’s too hot and that they forgot the mustard, but he still lets Annie curl up next to him when she gets tired of running back and forth to the trees.

And Stiles’ damn laughter, still the most beautiful noise Derek has ever heard, lifting up and showering over them every few minutes.

Derek think’s this might just be the happiest moment of his life.

 

**40**

 

“Dad, Papa, this is Dawn.”

They have heard a lot about Dawn. Like, Derek is a 40-year-old man and he’s pretty sure he could give this teenage girl nightmares if he started reciting all the things he knows about her. She has been the most discussed topic in the house, much to Derek’s dismay, for about six weeks now. Derek does not think her eyes are the color of sunshine.

James is looking at her though like she could invent a handheld phone and Derek really needs to put an effort in here now, how long of a silence has this been, anyway?

He focuses back in and finds that Stiles has picked up the slack.

“Almost ready, I made a casserole that is one of James’ favorites. He used to cry if we didn’t have it at least once a month.”

“Dad!” James protests, looking at him with fear.

He hears a throat clear and he turns, and Dawn is right there looking at him expectantly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Hale. James has said a great deal of good things about you.”

He smiles (more so at Stiles indignant gasp) and reaches out a hand for her to shake. She does seem very polite.

“It’s nice to meet you too.”

 

**44**

 

They have a September wedding four years later, and it’s during a surprising heat wave.

“What’s the chances we could ditch this and take a swim in that lake over there?” Stiles asks him as the reception starts and he goes for the very first appetizer he can find.

“This is your son’s wedding.”

Stiles waits.

“The chance is zero, Stiles. Besides, who’s going to console your father?”

Stiles glances over and fights a smirk. John Stilinski, as it turned out, was a _crier_ during weddings.  

“I don’t know if you have any business saying that, mister. Pretty sure your going to need to get a new handkerchief after today, too.”

“Very funny. If your father isn’t reason enough to stay, how about that over there.”

Stiles turns to follow Derek’s gauze, and than hums when he sees what his husband is pointing at.

Ella is over in the far corner, eating a plate of venison and mashed potatoes, and surrounded by three different young men, all looking at her like she hung the moon. And Ella, Derek knows, knows exactly what’s she’s doing. Derek’s never seen anybody so sure of themselves at 18.

“We both know Ella is more than capable of taking care of herself,” Stiles sighs. “Though I do wish she would just choose a boyfriend and let it be. She’s breaking so many little hearts everyday it seems.”

Derek hums, eyes looking around for his final child, and spotting her curled up on Edwards lap, not far from James and Dawn. Derek had been hesitant about Edward at first, because he had been 21 at the time they started dating two years ago, when Annie had only been 16. Edward was a good man though, Derek had come to find, and he trusted Annie.

“They’re making heart eye’s again,” he comments. Stiles hands slip into his and starts to tug, and when Derek turns to face him, he’s met with an evil grin.

“Come on, it would only take, like, an hour tops. That lake is beautiful and it’s so hot.”

“Stiles, don’t be ridiculous, we can’t just - ”

Stiles cuts him off with a kiss, and leans in close when he whispers “Come on, I’ll rim you for an hour tonight if you do.”

* * *

 

James is livid. He marches down to the lake, a short five-minute walk from the reception hall, practically screaming his head off. A fair amount of guests trickle outside to watch the scene.

Stiles sighs against Derek’s mouth, having just got his hand around Derek’s dick in the water and clearly put out.

“I cannot believe,” James gasps, and stops like he doesn’t know what he can’t believe. “Someone said, hey, isn’t that James parents in the lake, over there. And I thought, no way, they wouldn’t.”

He’s made it to the lake by now, and Dawn is quickly coming up behind him howling with laughter, something that, when James notices, causes him to pause.

She gives Derek and Stiles a few claps and she’s honest to god crying she’s laughing so hard. She grabs James' face and kisses his cheek.

“Honey,” she gets out through her giggles. “I love your family so much. This is perfect.”

Derek glances over at Stiles and finds him already smirking at him.

“I told you I had the best ideas,” his cocky husband murmurs as Derek wonders if this is the happiest he’s ever been.

 

**45**

 

“This is insane,” Ella comments, eyes glued to the TV.

“They are going to like, have colonies within a couple of years, mark my words,” Annie supplies.

Stiles squeezes Derek’s hands tighter.

It makes Derek feel small, in a way, seeing this one man land on the moon. His family, his entire world, inhabits such a small part of the earth. And here is this Neil Armstrong guy, thousands of miles away, in space.

It feels weird, almost. Like so many possibilities have opened up, like things could be changing in a big way. 

He wraps an arm around Stiles, pulls him close, and kisses his cheek. No matter what happens, he can say he has this. He’s _had_ this. And that’s enough to calm any worries.

 

**71**

 

“Are you sure you’re comfortable?” Annie asks for the seventh time, as little Johnny takes his 13-year-old hands and starts fluffing the throw pillows on his new couch in Stiles’ new room at the nursing home.

“I swear to the good Lord that if you ask that question one more time,” Derek hears his husband say, “I’m going to have your Papa grab you by the neck and throw you out of here.”

Derek looks over at Stiles and smiles, getting up and running a hand across his bald head. He looks down at the tubes that spiderweb across Stiles’ arms and he reaches past them, grabbing his husband’s hand in his own.

“A little change of scenery never hurt anyone,” Derek whispers. Stiles looks up at him and smiles. He’s seen this smile a million times before, yet he still feels his breath catch.

“Moooom, they are doing that thing where they just stare at each other again.”

“I know Johnny,” Annie says, “isn’t it beautiful?”

* * *

 

Why they won’t let them sleep in the same room is beyond Derek, they are _paying_ to be here, but he supposes it’s okay. Stiles was never one for rules anyway.

It’s ten minutes after the nursing home calls lights out that he hears the click of his door, followed by the quiet rattle of Stiles’ IV pole.

He scoots over as Stiles takes up half his bed.

“I missed you,” he whispers into Derek’s skin.

“It’s been thirty minutes you dork.” Derek missed him something terrible too, but one of them needs to act like an adult.

“I know, isn’t it pathetic?” Stiles sighs.

Derek wants to tell him it isn’t, but he’s old, okay? Sleep doesn’t so much creep up on him anymore as it hits him like a train car.

* * *

 

The next morning, Stiles’ smile is extra bright. When Derek asks about it, he smirks and tells him that Derek fell asleep whispering ‘I love you’.

 

**73**

 

They bury Stiles next to all four of their parents on a suitably dreary day in late August.

Stiles loved the summer.

All seven of his grandchildren spoke at the funeral, and yes, Derek feels like his whole world is falling apart, but he also feels so light, so happy, not sure if he’s gasping to catch his breath because he wants to smile or because he wants to scream.

Stiles had a good life. _They_ had a good life.

He’s back at his old parents’ house, now owned by one of Laura’s kids, a few days after the funeral when Josh, Laura’s eldest, comes up to him with a smile.

“Uncle Derek,” he says with a deep baritone, “I was wondering if you remembered that old tree house that was on our land.”

It’s a fair question; his memory has been pretty spotty lately. But not for something like this.

“Of course I remember. I haven’t thought about it in decades though. Is it still standing?”

Josh’s smile widens. “Yeah, mom told us about your tree house stories a thousand times, there was no way we were taking it down. Would you…would you like me to take you there?”

He thinks about it. His bones and joints ache at the thought, it’s at least a half mile trek out. His hands are slightly shaking as he grasps his cane.

“I don’t think I could make that trip, honestly.” He sighs.

Josh nods.

“That’s okay. Umm, there’s actually something I want to show you. We found it a few years back but we kept forgetting to call you up.” He pulls out a yellow piece of parchment and sets it on the table. “Betty found this under one of the floor boards up in the house. I honestly couldn’t believe it myself but…here. Call me if you need me.”

With that he leaves the room, and Derek is left to stare down at the paper.

It’s a letter.

_Derek,_

_Okay this is really stupid and I don’t know if I would be more embarrassed if you actually found this letter or if it just sat here forever mocking me when I remember it when I’m like 80. But here I am writing it anyway, so I guess the jokes on me._

_ANYWAY so I’ve been thinking a lot and I’m kind of too nervous to say it to your face so hopefully you find this and hopefully you also want to BUT I kind of would like another try and maybe do that one thing we did right before I hit you with that baseball bat again?_

_Also, sorry about that._

_It’s just, my mother won’t stop talking about you. Or my Dad. Or Jeffrey down at the market who seems to think you are more exciting than those new fries down at Willy’s Diner. You know the ones that curl? I swear someday those are going to be huge and everywhere._

_ANYWAY, I’m rambling. In a letter. It’s just, I think we could maybe have something? And that something could maybe be a really good thing? I don’t know, I just think a life with you would be pretty awesome? Who knows._

_If I don’t hear from you maybe I’ll grow a pair and come see you in person. Or maybe not, and we will just end up being one of those what ifs._

_I really hope we are not one of those what ifs._

_Stiles_

Derek chuckles, sniffling as he thinks about what the next 60 or so years had in store for the boy who wrote this letter.

“You were the best thing to ever happen to me, Stiles,” he murmurs, thumb brushing a teardrop off the parchment. He looks out at the sunset and finds himself smiling.

It’s been a good day.

* * *

 

_“I heard an old song today. It was a favorite of yours and for a moment I was back there. True love doesn’t end. I think it just scatters itself among everyday things.”_

_\- JmStorm_

**Author's Note:**

> Till next time :')


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